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From YouTube: County Public Health Dept. Press Conference (Revised Testing Order) - January 31, 2022
Description
County of Santa Clara Public Health officials address the second anniversary of the county’s first detected COVID-19 case and provide an update on the Health Officer’s Revised Order on COVID-19 Testing Requirements for healthcare providers.
Under the January 31, 2022 Revised Testing Order (“Order”), your healthcare provider is required to provide you with a COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) if you meet any of the following criteria:
* You have any symptoms of COVID-19;
* You have been exposed to a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 10 days; or
* You are required or recommended to have a COVID-19 test under State or County guidelines (healthcare facilities are not required to provide routine surveillance testing to K-12 students, but must provide all other testing recommended or required for K-12 students).
If you fall into one of the above categories and you request a test, your healthcare provider must provide you one within 24 hours. If you are provided with a lab-based test (such as a PCR test) that does not return immediate results, your healthcare provider must provide your results within 72 hours, or must provide you with an antigen test if they are unable to do so.
Your healthcare provider may tell you to go to another clinic or testing center operated by the same healthcare provider within the county (or outside the county if within 10 miles of your home) if needed to ensure that you receive a test within 24 hours. Your healthcare provider may not, however, tell you to go to a site run by another organization, including the County’s public testing sites.
The Order is effective at 12:01 am on February 7, 2022.
This press conference was recorded on January 31, 2022.
For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus
B
Hi
everyone
thank
you
for
being
here
today.
We
have
dr
sarah
cody
and
james
williams
from
the
county
of
santa
clara
here
to
address
that
we
are
have
just
completed
in
the
second
anniversary
of
the
first
case
of
coven
19
being
found
in
the
county,
and
james
will
address
an
update
to
the
public
health
order,
testing
ordinance
so
without
further
ado.
I'll
turn
it
over
to
dr
sarah
cody
roger.
C
As
you
may
remember,
on
january
31st
2020,
we
announced
our
very
first
case
of
kovid
in
a
santa
clara
county
resident
who
had
just
returned
from
wuhan
and
what
a
road
it's
been
in
the
last
two
years
since
that
time,
we've
documented
over
275
000
cases
of
covid.
When
we
know
that's
an
undercount,
and
now
over
2
000
people
from
our
community
have
died
of
covid,
while
that
number
our
rates
of
of
death
from
covet
are
lower
than
in
other
places
in
the
state
in
the
country.
C
C
We
now
have
83
and
a
half
percent
of
everyone
living
in
our
county
is
vaccinated.
So
that's
not
just
the
elbow
eligibles.
That's
everybody
83
and
a
half
percent
of
those
who
are
eligible
were
just
under
90
percent
vaccinated
and
almost
64
percent
of
people
who
are
eligible
to
be
boosted
have
gotten
boosted.
C
I
think
in
the
months
and
perhaps
years
ahead.
What
we
can
anticipate
is
that
we
will
continue
to
see
peaks
and
valleys.
We
won't
know,
of
course,
how
often
those
peaks
will
come
and
how
difficult
or
relatively
easy
those
peaks
will
be.
But
we
do
know
that
they'll
come,
but
we
have
our
layers
of
protection
and
we
know
what
to
do.
We
have
vaccinations,
we
have
boosters,
we
have
testing,
we
know
when
to
test.
C
C
C
C
D
D
I
wanted
to
provide
an
update
on
our
september
16
20
covet
19
testing
order
issued
by
the
health
officer,
and
this
is,
I
think,
part
of
what
dr
cody
was
just
talking
about.
You
know
the
need
to
ensure
easy
access
to
kova
testing
and
robust
infrastructure.
We've
had
that
order
in
place
for
some
time.
Obviously,
and
today
dr
cody's
issued
an
update
to
that
order.
The
update
doesn't
make
radical
changes.
D
It
does,
however,
bring
the
order
up
to
date
with
what
we
now
know
about
covet
testing.
So,
for
example,
it
will
continue
to
be
a
requirement
in
santa
clara
county
that
large
healthcare
providers
such
as,
for
instance,
kaiser,
stanford
and
pamf,
continue
to
provide
easy
access
to
cova
19
testing
to
their
patients.
D
D
For
pcr
tests,
the
results
have
to
be
provided
within
72
hours
and
if
there
are
any
delays
in
that
the
healthcare
providers
have
an
affirmative
duty
to
inform
us
of
those
delays
and
what
they
are
doing
to
resolve
them
and
finally,
health
care
providers
will
be
required
to
provide
an
updated
notice
to
patients
of
their
rights.
Under
this
order,
some
of
you
may
already
be
familiar
with
some
of
the
posted
notices
for
testing
access
at
these
facilities.
B
C
The
question
is:
are
we
coming
to
the
end
of
the
pandemic
and,
as
I
was
saying,
what
we
can
anticipate
going
forward
is
that
we
will
continue
to
have
more
peaks
and
valleys.
So
no,
the
pandemic
is
not
over.
It's
a
question
for
us
about
how
we
manage
the
pandemic
individually
and
collectively,
as
we
face
the
waves
that
will
come.
D
And,
if
so,
who-
and
the
answer
is
yes,
we
have
sent
warning
notices
to
all
of
the
large
healthcare
providers
in
our
county.
When
I
last
spoke
with
all
of
you
and
encouraged
folks
to
let
us
know
of
any
concerns
with
access
to
testing,
we
did
indeed
receive
concerns
from
many
members
of
the
public,
and
we
are
following
up
on
those
and
we
will
continue
to
follow
up
on
those.
D
E
C
C
I
would
say
that,
exactly
two
years
ago
today,
on
january
31st,
we
knew
so
little.
We
knew
so
little
and
I
hope
that
we
communicated
effectively
and
truthfully
what
we
knew
and
what
we
didn't
know.
What
we
have
tried
to
do
as
a
community
and
as
a
county
is
to
share
with
you
all
in
the
news
media
so
that
you
can
share
with
our
community
what
we
know,
what
we
don't
know
and
what
we
think
it
means
and
what
we
think
people
should
do.
F
D
Sure
so,
the
question
is
regarding
the
order
requiring
that
personnel
working
in
higher
risk
settings
receive
their
booster
shots,
in
other
words,
be
up
to
date
on
their
vaccination
and
again,
these
higher
risk
settings
are
places
where
there
is
a
lot
of
contact
with
more
vulnerable
populations.
That
includes
our
medical
first
responders,
which
in
this
county
includes
many
firefighters
and
the
question
was:
what
are
we
doing
to
enforce
that
order,
and
we
are
working
with
the
various
agencies
that
are
affected.
D
We
will
be
proactive
in
reaching
out
and
making
sure
that
folks
have
complied
with
the
order,
but
I've
got
to
tell
you,
based
on
the
questions
that
we've
received
and
the
communications
that
we've
had
with
the
agencies
that
employ
a
lot
of
personnel
who
work
in
these
settings.
They
appear
to
be
pretty
on
top
of
it
and
we're
pleased
that
a
lot
of
folks
have
gotten
vaccinated
as
a
result,
and
we
very
very
much
hope
that
people
will
go
ahead
and
get
their
booster
shot.
It's
very
simple
to
do.
The
access
is
readily
available.
D
So
the
question
was:
the
consequences
include
termination.
The
obligations
of
the
health
order
are
on
employers
and
or
and
their
organizations
how
the
organizations
handle
the
deployment
of
their
personnel,
for
example,
how
they
may
be
able
to
reallocate
folks
to
work
in
different
roles
or
accommodate
them
otherwise
or
be
unable
to
accommodate
them.
In
some
circumstances
is
something
for
them
to
handle
as
part
of
their
employer,
employee
relationship,
that's
not
governed
by
the
health
order.
So
our
requirement
is
simply
that
those
people
working
in
these
roles
be
up
to
date
on
their
vaccination.
F
C
The
question
was:
how
would
I
compare
covid
right
now
with
a
with
a
flu
season?
I
was
just
looking
this
morning
at
some
national
data
and
indeed
some
worldwide
data
and
we're
still
at
the
place
where
the
mortality
rates
from
covet
are
still
significantly
higher
than
the
flu.
So
if
you
look
at
everyone's
who
and
who's
infected
and
then
who
dies,
cove
is
worse.
C
This
isn't
just
like.
This
is
not
quote
just
like
the
flu,
which
is,
of
course,
why
we
continue
to
manage
it
differently
and
deal
with
it
differently,
but
I
want
to
emphasize
again
hopeful
signs.
The
good
news
is
that
we
know
so
much
more
about
covid
now
than
we
did
two
years
ago.
We
have
vaccines
that
are
very,
very
effective
at
protecting
all
of
us
from
severe
illness
and
death,
and
then
we
have
all
these
other
tools
that
we
can
layer
on
to
ensure
that
we're
protected.
So
that's
that's
very
good
news.
G
C
C
C
Right
now,
we
still
have
quite
a
bit
of
testing
available
and
you
can
always
go
to
the
county's
site
sccfreetest.org
and
see
where
testing
is
available.
The
purpose,
of
course,
of
this
revision
to
the
health
order
is
to
for
our
healthcare
providers
to
understand
that
they
also
need
to
rededicate
themselves
to
making
testing
available
for
their
patients.
G
C
So
the
question
is:
what's
the
reason
behind
the
revision
to
the
testing
order
and
I'll
make
a
couple
comments
and
then
invite
james
if
he
would
like
to
as
well
there's
a
couple
reasons.
One
is
yes,
the
county
has
been
carrying
a
disproportionate
burden
of
testing
throughout
the
pandemic
by
a
very
wide
margin.
C
Number
two
is
that
the
situation
has
has
changed
and
the
guidelines
have
changed
as
far
as
who
we
recommend
getting
tested
and
how
often-
and
we
wanted
our
health
order
to
be
updated
to
reflect
that
and
three
the
tests
that
we
had
the
diagnostic
tests
for
covid
that
were
available
when
I
issued
the
first
testing
order
have
also
changed,
and
so
we
needed
to
update
the
order
to
reflect
that.
For
example,
we
didn't
have
antigen
tests
when
we
issued
the
initial
testing
order.
G
E
C
I
like
to
align
with
the
state
and
the
cdc,
because
it's
simpler
to
communicate
to
the
public,
and
we
want
to
reduce
confusion
for
the
public,
because
at
the
end
of
the
day,
we
want
people
to
understand.
What's
the
risk,
what
does
it
mean
and
what
do
I
need
to
do
and
make
that
as
simple
as
possible?
C
G
C
Right
so
regarding
regarding
masking
is
as
I
as
I
mentioned,
we
are
looking
at
where
we
are
like
how
widely
is
coven
spreading,
how
much
of
a
risk
is
it
is
it
creating
and
what
layers
of
protection
do
we
need
to
either
recommend
or
mandate?
And
so,
of
course,
masking
is
one
of
those
that
we're
looking
at
and
evaluating.